


Negative Strip

by xSparklingRavenx



Category: NieR: Automata (Video Game)
Genre: Friendship, Gen, Photographs, Post-Apocalypse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-06
Updated: 2017-05-06
Packaged: 2018-10-28 19:12:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,313
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10837617
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xSparklingRavenx/pseuds/xSparklingRavenx
Summary: 9S finds a locked box in the desert, and realises that humans are more than just a concept.





	Negative Strip

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this ages ago for a prompt I got on tumblr but never posted this here oops, so here it is now! Tbh this is gen but it's 9S/2B if you squint, because let's face it, this is from 9S's POV. It was probably gonna happen regardless.
> 
> You know the drill, beta'd and edited by me, so if there's mistakes, I'm sorry!

9S found the airtight treasury in the abandoned desert complex, hidden away in the nook of a collapsed building. 2B had gone ahead, scouting out the area for any machines that might do them harm. “Take a look around, see if you can find anything that will be useful.” she’d said before she’d left him. “I’ll take out anything that comes our way.”

He’d been sore to see her leave; hunting around for upgradeable materials was boring enough under the best of circumstances. Without 2B there for him to chat at, he resigned himself to a long and lonely hunt through the complex that would likely prove fruitless in the end. He and 2B had been through here countless times before, and it had never dredged anything useful up.

That was why he was so surprised when his scans turned up the sealed nook, an area entirely protected by collapsed debris. It was well tucked away; he’d never noticed it before. Energised by the prospect of a new discovery, he picked his way through the rubble and began working away at the mess. Pod 153 assisted, carting away anything too heavy for him to pull himself.

There was something hidden beneath it all, protected from weather and time. It was a small box with a complex looking lock on it, similar to other boxes he’d come across before. “Analysis: hacking will be required for Unit 9S to access the contents.” Pod 153 said. 9S had already started up the sequence, knowing it would be required.

The lock on the box was simple enough. He’d encountered training games that had put up more of a fight. When it cracked open with a satisfying pop, he grinned and bumped his fist against Pod 153’s. “Nice and easy, right?”

Taking a step forward, he felt as if he shouldn’t be rough with this box. 2B would have kicked it open without a care, and so would he under normal circumstances, but this was a box that had survived who knew how many years undisturbed. He admired it in a strange way. He could only go a few days at best without needing some kind of maintenance.

“Want to bet on what’s inside?” he asked his Pod as he knelt down beside it.

“I will not take a bet, but I believe it will contain documents about the old world.”

“What, the kinds that Pascal is interested in?” 9S asked. His curiosity was burning. He and 2B had found all sorts in these kinds of boxes, flyers or pamphlets or newspaper articles detailing a world they would never know but fought to bring back anyway. The writings that the humans had left behind were incredible, 9S thought, even if he didn’t always understand them. He longed to know what had driven them to make those items, to write those words down.

Carefully, he cracked the box open. Like the ones they’d come across previously, it was nearly empty. All that resided inside it was a slim, black folder. “Oh?” he said, picking it up gently.

It was dusty but otherwise in perfect condition. He inspected it from every angle before finally deciding to open it. 2B would want to see it, but he just couldn’t wait. It was hard coded into him, an absolute need to know, a desire he could never quite quench no matter how much information he absorbed.

Inside the folder were plastic pockets, and each pocket contained a photograph. 9S’s eyes widened behind his visor as he realised what he was looking at, a small sound of excitement escaping from his lips. He knew what these were, knew that humans had once taken photos to capture moments in time. They had memories that were unlike the perfect recall that androids had. Whereas 9S could retain everything that he saw and replay it at will, human memory was more on the unpredictable side. Things could be forgotten, or remembered wrongly, or even just made up.

“This is incredible,” he said, more to the air than Pod 153. The pictures seemingly depicted a family, a woman and a man and two children. The woman had beautiful hair, wavy and long, and the man had a strongly defined jawbone similar to the ones 9S had seen on androids in the resistance camp. The children, two girls, always seemed to be doing something different. Riding bicycles, playing with dolls, sitting on their mother’s lap. One was a close up of the man’s face, an unflattering angle that showed him laughing.

9S felt a pang inside his chest. It was a kind of pity, he realised. Humans had always been a concept to him, something he knew existed on the moon but also something too far for him to every really _consider._ Even when he’d been reading what they had written, or looking at what they had created, he still couldn’t conceptualise the humans as actual beings. To him, they were God-like, unreachable, something to be saved.

Here, in front of him, he saw the evidence not just that they had existed, but that they had in fact _lived._ They had had lives and children and relationships. It was almost too large a scope for him to wrap his head around. 21O would want to see them, he thought. She was interested in weird stuff like human families.

The photographs were beautiful, every single one of them. They were a physical reminder of lives that had once been lived that 9S could never understand, and there was something a little bit incredible about that. He wanted, he realised, to have something like this of himself and 2B. His memory was perfect, yes, but a physical object that showed they had once been together at a specific moment in time was something amazing.

“9S? Are you in here?”

He turned halfway. 2B was stood at the entrance of the debris, her head tilted. “Found anything useful?” she asked.

He grinned, gesturing to the folder in front of him. “Check it out, 2B! I found this thing – I think humans called it a photo album – and it’s amazing! There are pictures of a real human family in here, have a look.”

She took it from him when he passed it over, her delicate fingers flipping each page as she took in the pictures. “A good find.” she said. “Though I don’t see much the point in taking a photo.”

“What? It’s so you can have a real thing to hold, obviously!” 9S said, stunned that she couldn’t see what he evidently did when he looked at them. “Don’t you think that’s beautiful, 2B? To have a physical memory of something?”

She looked up at him sharply, her mouth parted slightly. Then she shook her head, glancing back down. “Our memories are enough. There’s no need to make anything permanent.”

“So you wouldn’t want to?” 9S said, feeling a little bit like he’d been shot down. “If we ever found a camera that worked, I mean. You wouldn’t want to take a photo together?”

Her hold tightened on the photo album. “It’s unlikely we’d ever find something of the sort anyway. But anyway, this is a good discovery. The Commander will be pleased.” 2B paused, snapping it shut. “Ready to go?”

That was 2B speak for, _this conversation is over._ He sighed, nodding. “Yeah, yeah, I’m ready.”

The sides of her mouth were tense, as if she wanted to say more but was stopping herself. After a moment, she turned her back and left.

He followed behind, imagining if they _did_ find a camera. Would she smile, he wondered? Or would she let him take silly pictures like the close up ones in the album?

Neither, he thought. But he’d definitely get one of them together, just so he could have something to keep, something solid and infallible and of them.


End file.
